BURUNDI: CNDD changes due to faction-forming attempts,
new leader says

The new leader of the rebel Conseil national pour la
defense de la democratie (CNDD) Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye
has been speaking about the group's reorganisation.
In an interview with the BBC's Kirundi service last
night (Wednesday), he explained that the CNDD and its
armed wing the Forces pour la defense de la democratie
(FDD) were now grouped under the same leadership because
there had been attempts by some of the movement's leaders
to form factions. CNDD has sacked its former president
Leonard Nyangoma, accusing him of trying to take too
much power. Ndayikengurukiye said the group's political
leaders had "not been close enough to the war
front", and measures were therefore taken to stop
further "disintegration". He denied morale
in CNDD was low at a time when all-party peace talks
are set to resume in Arusha next month. CNDD representatives
would be at the talks, he added.

Rebels' strategy includes cutting off ears

Meanwhile a BBC correspondent who visited Burundi last
week spoke to villagers who said Hutu rebels had punished
them for "betrayal" by cutting off their
ears. The villagers are Hutus, living in the hills
around Bujumbura, whom the rebels accuse of not assisting
them. In Isale, Bujumbura Rural province, a string
of rebel attacks have brought fighting between insurgents
and the army closer to the capital, the BBC report
said. It added that several Hutu families were killed
as they were sleeping when their houses came under
rebel attack. Regional observers told IRIN today (Thursday)
both PALIPEHUTU and FDD rebels are active in Bujumbura
Rural. As in other parts of Burundi, the authorities
are building new houses in Isale on sites close to
the road which they say is for the peasant farmers'
security. The BBC report says that by collecting villagers
together, the move is also an attempt to deprive the
rebels of local support.

In a recent dispatch, Reuters said the Isale area had
been infiltrated by some 2,000 FDD rebels. It quoted
Bujumbura Rural governor Stanislas Ntahobari as saying
over 20,000 peasants had fled spontaneously, but local
residents said the authorities had ordered people to
evacuate their homes after a series of rebel attacks.
According to Ntahobari, the rebels are cutting off
people's ears "because the population doesn't
listen anymore to what they are saying".

RWANDA: Youth on trial charged with using dogs to kill
Tutsis

In Butare, southern Rwanda, a youth went on trial yesterday
for allegedly using his dogs to kill Tutsis during
the 1994 genocide, Rwandan radio reported. According
to the state prosecutor, he was 15 years old at the
time of the genocide. The verdict will be handed down
on 25 May.

At least 36 priests guilty of genocide, rights group
says

The human rights group, African Rights, has said at
least 36 Roman Catholic priests are believed to have
taken part in the genocide, AFP reported. In an open
letter to Pope John Paul II, the group said most of
the suspects were still serving the church and many
had escaped to Italy, France or Belgium after the slaughter,
where they were reportedly under the protection of
the Vatican.

UGANDA: Third rebel ambush in a week in Gulu area

An unknown number of soldiers were killed and 14 others
seriously injured on Monday in a rebel ambush in the
northern Gulu area, civilian sources told AFP yesterday.
The incident occurred at Lacaretot, 65 km northeast
of Gulu town, and was third ambush in a week, carried
out by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army. On Saturday,
rebels ambushed and destroyed a military vehicle along
the Gulu-Kampala road and on Wednesday they killed
10 people in an ambush on the Lira-Kitgum road, AFP
recalled. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has this
week been visiting the Gulu area.

ZAMBIA: Paris Club pledges US $530 million

The Paris Club of international donors yesterday pledged
about US $530 million in aid to Zambia in 1998, Reuters
reported. The World Bank said the government may receive
more assistance later this year if it speeded up privatisation
and economic reforms, and that a second donors' meeting
had been scheduled for before the end of 1998. The
aid pledges comprise US $235 million in programme aid,
essentially balance of payment support, and US $295
million in project support, the Bank said. That support
is exclusive of ongoing debt relief worth more than
US $120 million. Zambia had been seeking US $300 million
in project aid and US $289 million in balance of payments
support. The country also needs US $70 million for
public service reform.

Alleging the government's continued human rights abuse,
US-based Human Rights Watch on Monday called on the
Paris Club to maintain the suspension of balance of
payments support instituted by a number of donor countries
in 1996 over Zambia's human rights record.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION: New boss pledges to tackle
malaria

The new head of the World Health Organisation, former
Norwegian premier Gro Harlem Brundtland, has said the
fight against malaria will be one of WHO's top priorities.
In her inaugural speech in Geneva yesterday, reported
by the BBC, she said that because of international
travel malaria posed a global threat. The BBC commented
that her announcement may signal new hope for millions
of people worldwide with extra funding for both research
and health-promoting measures. The disease kills an
estimated 3 million people a year.

Nairobi, 14 May 1998, 14:25 gmt

[ENDS]

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